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The Housing Affordability Measure compares the income after housing costs of potential first home buyers in different parts of New Zealand to the national median income after housing costs for all households.

This page gives the latest results for the Housing Affordability Measure (HAM) which measures household income after paying for housing costs for potential first home buyers and renters, by region and territorial authority.

This page explains the difference in the versions of the Housing Affordability Measure data series and the disclaimers for its use.

About the HAM data

Introduced in May 2017, the Housing Affordability Measure (HAM) is an experimental statistical series that measures household income after paying for housing costs for 2 subsets of the population: potential first home buyers population and renters.

How affordability is calculated

Affordability is calculated by using data from Statistics New Zealand’s Integrated Data Infrastructure to measure income at the household level.

Housing costs – the rent lodged on tenancy bond forms for renters and mortgage payments, rates and insurance for potential first home buyers – are then subtracted. The remaining household income is then adjusted to reflect the fact that larger households generally need larger incomes.